Zimmerman Father: George Has Gotten Bad Rap, Believes Trayvon Martin Beat Him Up
March 29 2012, Published 4:00 a.m. ET
By Breaking Celebrity News Staff
George Zimmerman’s father Robert broke his silence in a television interview Thursday, discussing his son’s February 26 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, which has erupted into a national story with elements of race, politics and law enforcement brought to the forefront.
"It's my understanding that Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him," said Robert, whose face was not shown in the Q&A with Fox 35 in Orlando, Florida.
Robert, an ex-judge and veteran of the Vietnam War, said George has gotten a bad rap the fallout of the incident, as “they're just making up things not true about him.”
Robert, 64, said that his George, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer, had his antennas up after a sting of break-in robberies in their Sanford, Florida neighborhood. When George saw Trayvon walking between houses that night, his father said, he became suspicious and contacted police.
"He called the non-emergency number first, and they asked him where he was, because he was at the rear of the town houses and there was no street sign," said Robert, acknowledging George went against police orders by following Trayvon in hopes of pinpointing a location